New Zealand's Louis Sharp has tested at Imola and feels confident on the track.
New Zealand's Louis Sharp has tested at Imola and feels confident on the track.
Louis Sharp aims to improve his F3 season at Imola after a challenging start.
Sharp, currently 25th, has struggled with qualifying despite strong practice performances.
Imola marks the first of three consecutive race weekends, offering a chance to build momentum.
Kiwi FIA F3 racer Louis Sharp is looking forward to turning his season around this weekend at Imola. It may only be the third round of the F3 championship, but the opening two rounds haven’t quite gone to plan for the 18-year-old and his Rodin Motorsport team.
Without a top-10 finish in the four races so far, Sharp sits 25th on the points table with no points, while Rafael Camara leads on 56 points from Tim Tramnitz (30) and Noah Stromsted (27).
“It’s definitely not been the start to the season that we wanted,” Sharp told the Weekend Herald.
“We were super fast at the beginning in Melbourne and got unlucky with red flags during qualifying and didn’t end up where we should have been. It was the same in Bahrain, where we were really fast during testing but weren’t quite able to put things together for the race weekend.”
Imola this weekend offers a good chance for Sharp to haul himself up the leaderboard as it’s a track he’s tested on before and knows pretty well. It’s a bit of an old-school track reminiscent of some of the tracks he raced on during his GB3 campaign in the UK last year, and not unlike some he grew up on racing in New Zealand.
“Imola is a track I’ve been to before. Back 2023 I did the official test in F3, so I’ve had a taste of what it’s like.
“It’s an awesome track and like racing in the UK. It’s a proper old-school circuit; it’s tight, it’s bumpy and fast and I really enjoyed it when I was testing. I’m looking forward to getting back out there and getting a good result.
“It is similar in a way to some New Zealand tracks, but Imola has a lot more undulation, is tight and has no room for error,” said Sharp.
This weekend is the start of three intense race weekends for the Kiwi, starting at Imola before heading to Monaco and then Barcelona. If Sharp can get a good result this weekend, he and the team can start building some momentum for the run to the halfway point of the season.
Louis Sharp driving for Rodin Cars at the Melbourne Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images
While Sharp hasn’t been able to get to the pointy end of the field during a race just yet because of poor qualifying, the car has proven quick in practice, so he and the team are confident they have the speed. Now it’s just a matter of taking advantage of that.
“We’ve got to put together a few good weekends where nothing goes wrong, and we should be okay.
“These are three iconic tracks and I’m looking forward to racing on all three of them. At the end of these three weeks half the season is over, so the season is flying by pretty quickly.
“As a team we are hoping to get something [momentum] going this weekend and that will carry into Monaco and then carry into Barcelona.
“As I said earlier, it’s definitely not the start of a season we wanted, but there are plenty of races left in the series to get something going and build some good results,” he said.
The FIA F3 championship has the best junior category drivers in the world conmpeting for the title. Sharp has won his previous two championships – British F4 and GB3 – so is no stranger to the heat of battle.
“It’s definitely a very fierce championship in term of the competition. Obviously British F4 and GB3 are super competitive but this is a step up. I’m confident in the car, but the thing is there is very little practice available.
“You get two or three laps in practice and then it’s straight into qualifying. Having experience in these cars and the tracks are definitely an advantage.
“It is what it is, and you just have to get on with it. I’m definitely enjoying it, that’s for sure,” said Sharp.
